Classicalmusic

November 30, 1997 | Justin Davidson, Justin Davidson is the staff music writer at Newsday

Yo-Yo Ma, the most visible cellist of his generation, sits cocooned inside the ostentatious privacy of a long, white limousine that glides away from the Watergate Hotel in Washington. There is a stack of newspapers on the leather seat next to him, but Ma ignores both the photo of himself in the Washington Post, taken at last night's White House dinner for Chinese President Jiang Zhemin, and the one on the front page of the Baltimore Sun. He is talking about the Kalahari Desert.

Amazon.com, the world's biggest online retailer, will start a separate website dedicated to classical music. Classical music was the second-fastest growing music category at Amazon.com in 2006, the Seattle-based company said. A dwindling number of music stores and shrinking classical-music sections increased demand on its website, the company said.

So after spending $55 million to purchase classical station KFAC-FM, Evergreen Media Corp. is now contemplating a format change to rock music in order to raise profits. What did it think it was buying--a pro basketball team? Will Los Angeles become the only major city with no classical station? JEORGIA MOORE Hacienda Heights The latest of Claudia Puig's articles on KFAC and classical-music broadcasting is on Page 1 of today's Calendar.

The word that stands out in Bernheimer's article is embarrassment, which he uses to describe the fact that "there will be no commercial (classical-music) radio station in Los Angeles." Let's face it, L.A. is not a sophisticated city. It's a beach town with all the name entails. Angelenos' idea of culture is eating designer pizza and getting tickets for "Les Miz" or "Phantom." YOLANDA KRELL Los Angeles

The Cleveland Plain Dealer laid off one-third of its newsroom staff on Wednesday, and among those to go was Donald Rosenberg, the newspaper's former senior music critic who was reassigned from his post in 2008 and waged an unsuccessful lawsuit against his employer. Rosenberg most recently covered dance and other arts for the newspaper, writing reported pieces as well as some reviews. He confirmed his departure from the Plain Dealer by phone. His legal clash with the Plain Dealer two years ago stemmed from a number of highly critical articles that he wrote aimed at the Cleveland Orchestra and its music director, Franz Welser-Möst.

It is the pairing that classical-music fans have been eagerly awaiting for years. Lang Lang, the internationally renowned classical pianist, will team up with the heavy-metal band Metallica at the 56th annual Grammy Awards ceremony scheduled to take place Jan. 26 at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The ceremony will be broadcast on CBS. Grammy organizers said Lang Lang will appear with Metallica in a special performance during the ceremony. They said Lang Lang continues to serve in his role as the Grammy's cultural ambassador to China.

The Buena Park Library District will snare young readers with the World Wide Web of Tales this month as it kicks off its summer reading program. In keeping with the theme, Anansi the spider will keep track of time children spend reading, with the top readers earning prizes at the end of the season. Registration forms are available at the children's area reference desk. Four special summer programs begin at 2 p.m. today, when Linda Stroud's puppets perform a classical-music appreciation show.